A poster taped up on Central Avenue is the only clue so far, but it’s a tantalizing one for Downtown St. Pete diners who miss flaming cheese and ouzo pours: Acropolis Greek Taverna is coming back. The Greek restaurant is taking over the two-story space at 475 Central Avenue, directly across the street from the 400 Central tower, marking its return to a stretch of downtown it left behind three years ago.
The news first surfaced via I Love The Burg, which reported that the poster hanging on Central Avenue seems to be the only announcement Acropolis has made about the new location — it isn’t yet listed on the company’s website, and there’s no public timeline yet for when it might open. Acropolis previously operated at 515 Central Avenue, less than one block from the new spot, before closing that location in July 2023.
The address has seen plenty of turnover since. Concrete Jungle occupied the space and was the most recent tenant before Acropolis’s planned return. According to Creative Loafing Tampa, Concrete Jungle closed after two years in downtown St. Petersburg, following an eviction lawsuit in which the building owner alleged the business owed more than $100,000 in rent.
A Central Avenue Address With a Revolving Door
Acropolis’s old 515 Central Avenue space didn’t sit empty for long either. Thirsty First, a sports bar, moved in there in 2025, before shuttering earlier this year. That sports bar’s arrival on Central Avenue was itself a notable move: it relocated from 119 1st Avenue North, where it had debuted back in 2016, in a shift that St. Pete Rising reported was expected to triple the bar’s size, with 70 TVs and two floors of seating on Central Avenue.
So the corridor around these two addresses has churned through a Greek taverna, a sports bar, and a nightlife venue in the span of a few years — a pattern that fits into what Creative Loafing Tampa has described as a brutal stretch for Tampa Bay bars and restaurants over the first half of 2026. Acropolis’s return, whenever it materializes, would be a rare instance of a familiar name coming back rather than another storefront going dark.
What’s on the Menu — and Why the Napkins Matter
Acropolis is known for elevated and traditional Greek dishes alongside craft cocktails, Greek wines and ouzo, per the restaurant’s own website. The menu includes gyros, kebabs, dolmades, moussaka, pastitsio and wild-caught fish, and the brand has built a reputation around live entertainment and tableside flair that includes dancing and plate breaking.
As the restaurant itself puts it, saganaki arrives at guests’ tables on fire, napkins will be everywhere, and plates won’t survive the night. That showmanship traces back to 2001, when Acropolis opened its first location in Ybor City, Tampa, before expanding across the region.
Just how big that footprint has grown depends on which source you check. I Love The Burg reported that Acropolis has five locations throughout the Tampa Bay Area but none currently in St. Pete, while the company’s own website lists six locations across Florida — Orlando, Ybor City, New Tampa, Riverview, South Tampa and Tarpon Springs. Either way, a Downtown St. Pete return would put the chain back on Central Avenue for the first time since 2023, even if exactly when that happens remains anyone’s guess for now.